New block plan for Ballyarnett Country Park to help progress GSCA regional arts centre proposal

Members of Derry City & Strabane District Council Business & Culture Committee this week approved the work to ensure all known interests seeking to be based in the park can be accommodated.

Ollie Green, Arts Director, GSCA/Studio 2, in a presentation to the committee, said the block plan would help progress its ambitious vision for the park.

He noted that Studio 2 now hosts 2,500 people a week and has seen substantial year-on-year increases in people coming through its doors.

“GSCA would respectfully request that council members formally endorse this action as a first step towards the further development of a time-framed action plan that would see the establishment of a steering working group to develop terms of reference to endorse the concept and empower officers to work with GSCA and others to progress this proposal through to project stage,” he said.

SDLP Councillor Rory Farrell described the proposals as ‘really, really ambitious’ and said they would have ‘a massive and lasting impact on arts and culture right across the city and district’.

Colr. Farrell alluded to the fact that the proposal had considered siting the centre on a section of the park that has been leased by DC&SDC to the Steelstown Brian Ógs GAA club for the development of a second football pitch.

"I know that there were difficulties leading up to this in terms of the proposed site but part of that process and part of that discussion was council officers would engage with yourself to try and find a route out of that, to try and find some common ground so you are here today.

“You have two proposals here. One is about block planning Ballyarnett Country Park, because I know there are competing interests. It is a massive, massive space, so there is room for lots of organisations, lots of community groups, to have that park as a base, so I fully, fully agree with that proposal.

“The second aspect is about establishing a working group to understand the terms of reference to move this project forward,” he said.

Colr. Farrell said approving the block plan represented the beginning of a process that would involve a feasibility study and ultimately a business case.

“This is the start of the process, a process we are going to be fully engaged with because it is an ambitious plan but it would have massive, massive benefits to people right across the city so that is something we are supporting,” he said.

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DUP Alderman Julie Middleton leant her party’s support for the project saying she was ‘keen to learn some more about what the future plans might hold for the area’.

People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin said the project would ‘massively benefit the city’.

“I think that we have to be very ambitious about what we want for Derry and the North West.

“Ollie and a number of others from the arts and culture sector are very involved in putting a case to Stormont, to different departments, to the Arts Council, about a legacy of lack of investment here and if we want investment here we have to have ambitious plans to go with them. I think this is one of them.”

Sinn Féin Councillor John McGowan observed that the arts is something ‘Derry does better than most cities on this island’.

“I would love to see where this would go because the more money we invest in arts in this city and area, we make this place more attractive not just for tourists but for the people that live here,” he remarked, adding that he looked forward to having a Communities Minister in place at Stormont to whom the proposal could be put.

Briefing the committee on the proposal Director of Business & Culture Stephen Gillespie said: “The initial step is to look at the park in total, look at all the various competing and cooperating interests that are there, to redo a block plan which Environment & Regeneration [another council directorate] are going to take on to make sure that everybody can be accommodated within that.

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“That's kind of the first step so members can be reassured first of all that we've got room for everybody even though we probably guess we can but just to make sure in terms of the various sites and so on.”

Mr. Gillespie said an existing masterplan process for Ballyarnett is now out of date and will be replaced with a regeneration framework subject to members’ approval.

He acknowledged the block plan was the beginning of an ‘ambitious journey’.

Colr. Farrell said: “It is a large park. We know that there is interest and it has been approved from Steelstown Brian Ógs. We know there is interest from Greater Shantallow Area Partnership (GSAP). We know there is interest from Na Magha, various community groups.

"So is the purpose of this to look at the park in its entirety, look at every organisation that wants to be based there in some form or fashion and demarcate where they are ideally going to go and if so what is the next step?

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“Has GSCA expressed an interest in any particular part or are we producing a plan to say these are the areas that are available and suitable for such a development?”

Mr. Gillespie replied that the council will look at the park in its entirety also considering roadways and access issues.

“Broadly speaking we want to reassure members that all the interests can be accommodated and where they would be accommodated and how we would do that,” he said.

The committee approved the production of a new block plan for the site.

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